Identifying high cholesterol in the ambulance setting: a mixed-methods cohort study to tackle health inequality.

Background Individuals with low socio-economic status (SES) have disproportionate rates of cardio- vascular disease (CVD) but poorer engagement with preventative health. This study aimed to compare characteristics of individuals with and without hyperlipidaemia and describe their health behaviours. Methods A mixed-methods study between January-December 2022. Patients aged ≥40 years using the ambulance service with blood pressure of ≥140/90 had their total cholesterol measured using a point of care device. Data including blood pressure, smoking status, National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) and clinical frailty scale (CFS) were analysed. Results Of 203 patients (59% female, mean age 65.7 years), 115 (56.7%) had total cholesterol ≥5.1mmol/L. Thirty patients (14.8%) sought treatment and received either statins (n=9; 4.4%), dietary modification (n=7; 3.4%) or no further intervention (n=14; 6.9%), whilst 85 patients (41.9%) took no further action. Lower CFS (OR 0.53 [0.31-0.93]) and higher total cholesterol (OR 2.07 [1.03 – 2.76]) predicted seeking further management. SES was not associated with hyperlipidaemia or likelihood of seeking further management which was dictated by competing co-morbidity, poor health literacy and digital divide. Conclusions Undiagnosed hyperlipidaemia exists in patients using the ambulance service, irrespective of SES. Individual and healthcare system factors prevent engagement in cholesterol lowering behaviours

The effect of facial ageing on forensic facial image comparison

Facial appearance changes over time as people age. This poses a challenge for individuals working in forensic settings whose role requires them to match the identity of face images. The present research aimed to determine how well an international sample of forensic facial examiners could match faces with a substantial age gap. We tested a sample of 60 facial examiners, 23 professional teams and 81 untrained control participants. Participants matched pairs of photographs with a 10–30-year age gap between the images. Participants also estimated the ages of the faces. On the matching task, individual professionals and teams outperformed controls and made fewer high confidence errors. On the age estimation task, there was no advantage for professionals relative to controls. Our results suggest that forensic facial examiners can tolerate substantial age differences between adult faces when performing comparisons, but this advantage does not extend to accurate age estimation

Using outlier elimination to assess learning-based correspondence matching methods

Recently, deep learning (DL) technology has been widely used in correspondence matching. The learning-based models are usually trained on benign image pairs with partial overlaps. Since DL model is usually data-dependent, non-overlapping images may be used as poison samples to fool the model and produce false registrations. In this study, we propose an outlier elimination based assessment method (OEAM) to assess the registrations of learning-based correspondence matching method on partially overlapping and non-overlapping images. OEAM first eliminates outliers based on spatial paradox. Then OEAM implements registration assessment in two streams using the obtained core correspondence set. If the cardinality of the core set is sufficiently small, the input registration is assessed as a low-quality registration. Otherwise, it is assessed to be of high quality, and OEAM improves its registration performance using the core set. OEAM is a post-processing technique imposed on learning-based method. The comparison experiments are implemented on outdoor (YFCC100M) and indoor (SUN3D) datasets using four deep learning-based methods. The experimental results on registrations of partially overlapping images show that OEAM can reliably infer low-quality registrations and improve performance on high-quality registrations. The experiments on registrations of non-overlapping images demonstrate that learning-based methods are vulnerable to poisoning attacks launched by non overlapping images, and OEAM is robust against poisoning attacks crafted by non-overlapping images

From tiny acorns: a co-produced research project between Chinese teacher researchers and UK-based international initial teacher training academics

Initial teacher education (ITE) providers embed school-based research assignments into their teacher training curricula. Tutors and mentors supporting trainees and early career teachers work within the initial teacher training (ITT) Core Curriculum (CCF) and Early Career (ECF) frameworks, where ‘learn that’ statements are coupled with an evidence-informed ‘learn how to’ approach to reflective practice (DfE, 2019a, 2019b). Teacher professional development is both necessary for ongoing compliance with the teachers’ standards (DfE, 2011) and a requirement in annual appraisal systems, with action research a common approach in schools (Hidson, 2021). Many teachers complete further postgraduate study part-time while in post, turning a lens on their own schools to explore theory in practice. School leaders embrace research in schools (Chisnell, 2021) and are governmentally mandated to engage with research evidence and implement promising findings into their plans, especially in terms of addressing educational disadvantage. The sector seems geared towards developing a research-rich and self-improving educational system predicated on the capacity for teachers to engage with research. The Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) undertaken for the BERA Close-to-Practice (CtP) report of 2018 highlighted an absence of high-quality studies that ‘addressed the research of academics with responsibilities for initial teacher education (ITE)’ (Wyse et al, 2021, p. 1480). Put simply, no relevant studies were found that reported on CtP research done by teacher educators. Despite these academics being in a symbiotic relationship with schools, and despite them initiating, supervising, and assessing school-based research assignments on undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research courses, this uniquely positioned group of practitioner researchers does not produce CtP outputs that are recognised in terms of national or international reach and significance: their innovations are ‘below the radar’ (Perry et al. 2017, p. 28). Addressing problems at a classroom or school level tends to remain internal to the school, perhaps an echo of schools being seen historically as closed systems (Griffin & Barnes, 1984), but in this case not disseminating CtP impact widely enough rather than external research findings not finding their way into schools. What is required is a shift in practice so that ITE academics and teacher researchers can collaborate on practitioner-led research that influences practice and creates impact in schools at the micro (classroom), meso (institutional) and macro (school group/regional) level. An additional anticipated benefit from this is that new knowledge can be fed back and contribute to research-rich initial teacher education. This paper reports on CtP work in progress, presenting in this instance a collaborative pilot project between UK-based ITE academics and an international school in Shanghai, the first phase in a larger umbrella project. The larger project’s research question asks, ‘To what extent can research co-created between schools and HE impact at the micro, meso and macro level?’ The co-created research project stemmed from the professionally curious iGCSE science teachers’ frustration that learners must be able to master, communicate and be assessed on their scientific capability through reading, listening, writing, and speaking solely in English despite their native Mandarin fluency. The teachers’ research question asked the extent to which developing bespoke translanguaging resources could support Grade 9 students’ science subject competency in English, inspired by Littlewood’s (2007) communicative framework. Teachers trialled an ‘English for Science’ intervention with worksheets and vocabulary booklets to support students’ content processing between Mandarin and English, with promising results demonstrated through formative and summative assessments. Working with the ITE academics allowed for a sharing of research skills and knowledge to develop a project that followed an action research methodology. Rather than fixing one problem for one group of students, the academics, in line with Hordern’s (2021) call to consider the impact on education rather than practice in isolation, were conscious of the potential to demonstrate impact beyond the initial intervention, so a wider scope was established, where practice could be shared within and beyond this school to the wider group of affiliated schools. Using an expanded version of Elliot’s (1991) action research model, the presentation will conclude by sharing a framework currently under construction that systematises planning for impact at the micro (classroom), meso and macro levels. It will also outline progress on additional phases in the overarching project and encourage discussion on the themes of practitioner research and the CtP debate. Chisnell, G. (2021). Irresistible learning: Embedding a culture of research in schools. Melton: John Catt. Department for Education (DfE), (2011). Teachers’ standards. London: DfE. Department for Education (DfE), (2019a). Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework. London: DfE. Department for Education (DfE), (2019b). Early Career Framework. London: DfE. Elliot, J., (1991). Action research for educational change. Buckingham: Open University Press. Griffin, G. A., and Barnes, S. (1984). ‘School Change: A Craft-Derived and Research-Based Strategy’. Teachers College Record, 86(1), 103–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146818408600109 Hidson, E. (2021). ‘Video-Enhanced Lesson Observation: Moving from Performance Management to Continuous Teacher Development’. In: Video Enhanced Observation for Language Teaching, Reflection and Professional Development. Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching. Bloomsbury, New York. Hordern, J. (2021). Why close to practice is not enough: Neglecting practice in educational research. British Educational Research Journal. 47(6), pp. 1451-1465. DOI: 10.1002/berj.3622. Littlewood, W. (2007). ‘Communicative and task­based language teaching in East Asian classrooms’. Language Teaching, 40, pp 243­249 doi:10.1017/S0261444807004363 Perry, E, Boylan, M., Booth, J. and Coldwell, M. (2017). ‘Connecting research and teacher education: quality enhancement for ITE Partnerships’. Cardiff: Welsh Government. Wyse, D., Brown, C., Oliver, S. & Poblete, X. (2018) The BERA close-to-practice research project: Research report (London, British Educational Research Association). Wyse, D., Brown, C., Oliver, S. & Poblete, X. (2020) ‘Education research and educational practice: The qualities of a close relationship’, British Educational Research Journal, https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3626

Health Index Assessment for Power Transformer Strategic Asset Management in Electrical Utilities

The use of Health Index (HI) has helped in driving electrical utilities decision making for strategic investment planning including operation, and maintenance (O&M) programmes. This approach increases the ability of the business to implement robust investment decision objectives that makes physical assets safe, productive, efficient, and cost effective. Asset Management (AM) framework is defined by British Standards PAS55 and ISO55001/2 to ensure electrical network operators are delivering best quality of services by operating at high performance, low cost while managing unexpected risks [38, 39]. Data monitoring and recording have improved but still robust master dataset is either limited or not available due to a range of factors including huge costs for capturing live data, the lack of monitoring tools, limited or no data collection and, data uncertainty challenges. there are a small number of electrical utilities [31] around the globe who capture data using recent technologies that work in line with information best practice which serve large fleet of Power Transformers (PTs). Specific tools such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) has helped to address problems associated with limited or missing data uncertainty issues, data capturing process, and therefore impact the accuracy of a HI calculation. Recently, innovative systems became an alternative approach in structuring big data to support condition assessment and condition monitoring tools which are reliant on various data sources. This paper discusses HI scoring for transformer condition assessment using conventional methods that can add value to the AM practice. This includes defining HI model requirements. Power transformer health index data interpretation analysis will be considered using international standard: Institute of Electrical Electronics & Engineers (IEEE) C57.104 transactions on industrial informatics. Preliminary analysis for data management using Python Programming Language (PPL) is considered. The authors hope to provide an up-to-date review of the current literature to allow academia and industry to question and challenge a preconceived perception that large datasets are difficult to obtain and review to support the development of new decision-making investment activities. Keywords: Power Transformer, Asset Management, Health Index, Artificial Intelligent, Electrical Utility, Decision Making, Strategic Investment Planning, Python Programming Language

Stylistics, pop culture, and educational research: A systematized review and case study

This paper explores how educational research and stylistics, fields that rarely intersect, can be in closer dialogue in the study of pop culture texts, artefacts of interest to scholars in both disciplines. I establish in a systematized critical interpretive synthesis that educational research tends to treat pop culture texts as documents. I show that this in turn tends to drive content-focused analyses that stay, from a linguistic point of view, at the surface of the texts. In response, I offer a stylistic analysis of a pop culture text, an episode from the situation comedy The Big Bang Theory that features an English language learner. I employ conversation analysis to interpret the dialogue and demonstrate how a linguistic approach opens up readings on the discursive construction of phenomena such as belonging and exclusion

Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Models for Predictive Maintenance of Ball Bearing Systems

In the era of Industry 4.0 and beyond, ball bearings remain an important part of industrial systems. The failure of ball bearings can lead to plant downtime, inefficient operations, and significant maintenance expenses. Although conventional preventive maintenance mechanisms like time-based maintenance, routine inspections, and manual data analysis provide a certain level of fault prevention, they are often reactive, time-consuming, and imprecise. On the other hand, machine learning algorithms can detect anomalies early, process vast amounts of data, continuously improve in almost real time, and, in turn, significantly enhance the efficiency of modern industrial systems. In this work, we compare different machine learning and deep learning techniques to optimise the predictive maintenance of ball bearing systems, which, in turn, will reduce the downtime and improve the efficiency of current and future industrial systems. For this purpose, we evaluate and compare classification algorithms like Logistic Regression and Support Vector Machine, as well as ensemble algorithms like Random Forest and Extreme Gradient Boost. We also explore and evaluate long short-term memory, which is a type of recurrent neural network. We assess and compare these models in terms of their accuracy, precision, recall, F1 scores, and computation requirement. Our comparison results indicate that Extreme Gradient Boost gives the best trade-off in terms of overall performance and computation time. For a dataset of 2155 vibration signals, Extreme Gradient Boost gives an accuracy of 96.61% while requiring a training time of only 0.76 s. Moreover, among the techniques that give an accuracy greater than 80%, Extreme Gradient Boost also gives the best accuracy-to-computation-time ratio

An investigation into the provision of support for mature international students at UK HEIs to foster belonging

Widening participation and lifelong learning have emerged as areas of keen debate in Higher Education. The rapid expansion of international students in UK HEIs has led universities across the UK to turn their attention towards ensuring that students have the necessary foundations to succeed. However, quite often students with multiple characteristics (‘intersectionality’) are marginalised. An example of such a group is mature international students, who may be overlooked and under-supported. Current literature indicates that both mature and international students do not fit into the traditional university culture with additional family, work, and financial pressures, often exacerbating their feelings of alienation and a weaker sense of belonging to the university community. Whilst student belonging has become the focus of research in HEIs, limited research exists around supporting mature international students. Drawing upon primary and secondary data from across 44 UK HEIs, this study synthesizes the current levels of support offered h to mature international students and gaps in provision, highlighted by researchers and practitioners. Our results show that whilst a wide range of support exists to foster the belonging of mature or international students, this largely fails to cater for mature international students. The study highlights the importance of moving away from a deficit model and ensuring that HEIs focus on facilitating cultural inclusivity

An intersectional study of women’s practice of entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka

Traditional entrepreneurship literature claims to present a universal model of the entrepreneur by adopting ostensibly unbiased criteria to assess entrepreneurial motivation and performance. However, the deep-rooted white male bias in conceptualising entrepreneurship leads not only to a narrow representation of the experiences of non-western women entrepreneurs, but also to biased, incomplete and misleading explanations, concepts, theories and models to explain practices and experiences of entrepreneurs in general. This chapter seeks to contribute to the growing body of feminist entrepreneurship scholarship by providing an inclusive representation of entrepreneurs by turning to the lived experiences of 44 Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs. This chapter presents novel findings by examining the intersectionality of gender, class, caste, ethnicity, religion, life-cycle-stage to unpack how women engage in entrepreneuring. The findings reveal how women are socially positioned in entrepreneurship and how women carefully navigate structural and institutional barriers to present themselves as belonging through everyday practices

Confidence, not competence: Reframing Roles to Embed FICare

This paper summarises and critically discusses the successful implementation of Family Integrated Care (FICare) at two Swedish tertiary neonatal intensive care units (Karolinska and Uppsala). The paper is the culmination of a three-day information-finding trip where we observed Swedish neonatal practice on the units and interviewed a range of key staff members regarding their approaches and values to neonatal care. The key findings were that parents are viewed as knowing their babies best and all neonatal staff work towards the ethos of zero separation. This is achieved through promoting confidence in parents to care for their own babies and the concept that neonatal nurses are there to facilitate instead of ‘do’. We propose recommendations for how we can emulate the resource-independent aspects of this model in the UK